Unlocking Opportunity for Americans through trade with the Asia Pacific

President Obama’s trade agenda is dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. That’s why we are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 21st century trade agreement that will boost U.S. economic growth, support American jobs, and grow Made-in-America exports to some of the most dynamic and fastest growing countries in the world.

As the cornerstone of the Obama Administration’s economic policy in the Asia Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership reflects the United States’ economic priorities and values. The TPP not only seeks to provide new and meaningful market access for American goods and services exports, but also set high-standard rules for trade, and address vital 21st-century issues within the global economy.

Here are a few of the ways the Trans-Pacific Partnership will unlock opportunity for you

These things signify, as far as I see it, the next step for a largescale and illegal sneak-attack against everything the Predatory Ruling Class (PRC) hopes to eliminate from the human race. It targets citizens wishing to share information and it targets sites like CluesForum. It surreptitiously labels information as "products" that are defended by their "owners" in a way truly unprecedented in greed and paranoia.

The plus side is that it honestly puts forth the PRC's psychotic anti-human agenda that we know has apparently always existed since any beginning you choose to find since the "industrial revolution".

Is it real? Will it be enacted? Is it just a threat? These are the questions we should be asking from a position of knowing how much the PRC incorporate fakery in their articles.

I believe the responsible answers to those questions are:

Is it real? It is only as real as any other proposed bill or act, including the disgusting human rights-squeezing Patriot Act. We all feel the emotional result of the Patriot Act in USA's political and economic aggression toward other countries. We can hope it is not real. We can hope it will fail. However, we must not be concerned with its reality if we can all collectively take the position that it is an illegitimate and illegal attack on the freedoms of all nations, including those the TPP claims to be serving.

Will it be enacted? It, or something like it, as we all suspect, has been the goal of the PRC for decades now. Now they are making it plain they wish to legitimize their criminal behavior using their authority. By agreeing to shake hands and nod at each other in their offices and embassies, this "act" is nothing more than the continuation of a "Free Trade" pattern we are familiar with. In that sense, it will be enacted either by this Obama TPP group or another. Like the thoroughly usurped, self-congratulating Oscars and Noble Peace Prize events, the pompous decision basically serves as an announcement from the elites that they mean to act confident in their continued decision to defy any natural rejection of their attacks.

Is it just a threat? It could be seen as more of the same. It could be seen as something actually beneficial. It could be seen as a distraction, as we skeptics are often liable to call something that is emotionally upsetting in the news. The problem is that it is not in the news. And therefore, we should gear up to avoid this thing and fight it via each of our own methods. Peer-to-peer downloading. New open source crypto software. Anything that allows us to assist each other with information sharing. I believe that regardless of what "real threats" this "predictable" thing may be "distracting us" from, we should act now to familiarize ourselves with it and the new ways authority figures will sic legal and police and paramilitary types (as usual) against those who would defy the crack down on information

On the surface it appears to be nothing but a "job boosting" bill. But the truth is seemingly not in the news or "the air" and if it is, I would like to know more about why. (We can guess by now, I am sure.)

Now, the motivation for things like the Charlie Hebdo Psy-Op non-event becomes a little more clear to me. Here is how they phrase the TPP's decisions to inflate copyright claims and attack forms of free data exchange, under claims of "espionage" just as any talk of systemic change can now be labeled "terrorism". In red, I speculate the most doublespeak way one could interpret the language, since we have often seen this happen with NAFTA, WTO and Free Trade type "agreements" made by the business elite. I guess it's not a conspiracy if they aren't in the same room together?

a robust [read: extremely aggressive] intellectual property (IP) rights framework to promote innovation [PRC code for giving money and legal favor to those who are making profits or even fictional speculative profits], while supporting access to innovative and generic medicines [PRC code again: giving favor to profit-oriented experimental pharmaceuticals over alternative and holistic medicines] and an open Internet [one of the most disturbing doublespeak terms in years, since TPP has been accompanied in neoliberal circles with discussions of how to force personal identification or "transparency" on its users beyond anything the PRC would be willing to turn upon themselves]; and obligations [legal threats, perhaps] that will promote a thriving digital economy [charges, taxes and other inconveniences to any limitless use of the Internet], including new rules to ensure the free flow of data [new ways of sequestering data from the open network to specific pipelines that benefit money-makers].

And as bostonterrierowner has repeatedly pointed out to us, though I have been perhaps unnecessarily skeptical of it, it does indeed seem to be "all about China", as this specific passage from the USTR "Special 301" report to U.S. Congress indicates:

Trade secret theft, including industrial and economic espionage, which imposes significant costs on U.S. companies and threatens the security of the United States, appears to be escalating [No citation whatsoever!]. If a company’s trade secrets are stolen, it may be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to recoup past investments in research and development [But wait a minute, that's called "capitalism" in every other respect and not only accepted but promoted as sound business strategy when large companies do it! Do you think TPP drafters are communists? Are they going to now protect the innovations of small time Etsy shop owners that have their ideas stolen by international corporations like Urban Outfitters? Yeah, right! It's going to benefit the people with the money.], and future innovation may be compromised. Moreover, trade secret theft threatens to diminish U.S. competitiveness around the globe, and puts American jobs at risk [An outright lie, since they can only be speaking of fictional speculative jobs before R&D is complete on a project, and once more, "drives competition" in cases where R&D is done. Oh, but I forget. We're talking about protecting mega behemoth corporations]. The reach of trade secret theft into critical commercial and defense technologies poses threats to U.S. national security interests as well. [Yeah fucking right. Like that isn't the main focus and constant justification for war organizations a.k.a. "defense" organizations to do what they please with our tax money all the time.] For these reasons, the United States is concerned by gaps in trade secret protection and enforcement, and the apparent growth of trade secret theft, particularly in China [Ding ding ding! I think I owe bostonterrierowner a beer or something.], as reported by various sources, including the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX).

The ONCIX publication titled Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace, states that “Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.” Theft may arise in a variety of circumstances, including those involving departing employees, failed joint ventures, cyber intrusion and hacking, and misuse of information submitted to government entities for purposes of complying with regulatory obligations. In practice, effective remedies, including under Chineselaw, appear to be difficult to obtain.

From the same document, they try — oh, how hard they try — to make it seem as though watching a movie online is as dangerous as installing a faulty part in your car! (Hey, well, should we argue with that one ... ?)

The problems of trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy continue on a global scale and involve mass production and sales of a vast array of fake goods, including counterfeit semiconductors, medicines, health care products, food and beverages, automobile parts, such as air bags, aircraft parts, apparel and footwear, toothpaste, toys, shampoos, razors, electronics, batteries, chemicals, sporting goods, motion pictures, and music.

Uh, I've never heard of "fake" motion pictures or "fake" music. What's that like? Do I sit and stare at a screen for a couple hours and then get up and realize I've been looking at static while thinking I've watched a movie? Is it when I hear a bunch of disjointed sounds, whirs and clicks from a speaker and delusionally believe I've heard the latest Bat For Lashes album?

What is a "fake" toy? Is that when children believe they're having fun with something but it's really a serious business tool!?

What the fuck is a "fake" chemical? Is it made of fake atoms?

Consumers, legitimate producers, and governments are harmed by rampant trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. Consumers may be harmed by fraudulent and potentially dangerous counterfeit products, including medicines, auto and airplane parts, and semiconductors. Producers face the risk of diminished profits and loss of reputation when consumers purchase fake products, and governments may lose tax revenue and find it more difficult to attract investment. Infringers generally pay no taxes or duties, and often disregard basic standards for worker health and safety and product quality and performance.

Yes, all these business leaders really give a rat's ass about worker health and safety. Comedy gold.

What do you suppose this section is all about?

Government Use of Software Under Executive Order 13103 issued in September 1998, U.S. Government agencies maintain policies and procedures to ensure that they use only authorized business software. Pursuant to the same directive, USTR has undertaken an initiative to work with other governments, particularly in countries that are modernizing their software systems or where concerns have been raised, to stop unauthorized government use of software. Considerable progress has been made under this initiative, leading to numerous trading partners’ mandating that only authorized, legitimate software may be used by their government bodies. Further work on this issue remains with certain trading partners, such as China, Costa Rica, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The United States urges trading partners to adopt and implement effective and transparent procedures to ensure legitimate governmental use of software.

hoi.polloi wrote:And therefore, we should gear up to avoid this thing and fight it via each of our own methods. Peer-to-peer downloading. New open source crypto software. Anything that allows us to assist each other with information sharing

OK, here's a possible solution to bring back free speech on the internet: let's use open-source-encrypted radio frequencies bounced off the "ionosphere" (which bounces back radio waves from country to country surprisingly well, as if it were glass)...

...and thus (although I dislike radio vibes being outwardly transmitted close to my body) as long as we set up enough safe high antennas to these new radio stations of information around the world, we would instantly benefit by the "New Free-Radio No-More-Connection-To-The-Old-Land-Line-System" New Internet because: this means no more IP addresses!

Finally, the actual ability to speak one's opinion without being imprisoned by people who make laws which forbid their tyranny to be discussed (as discussed by Hoi well above.)

So, how would this radio frequency thing work? I guess one would "listen to this new internet" with a radio-like radio-frequency-listening-device that is attached to one's computer, tuning in to some exact specific frequency one knows one wants to listen to, and receive information that way...

...and then for those wanting to take the next step of transmitting, one would use a radio-frequency-transmitter (hopefully sufficiently safely away from the body, for example placed on one's balcony, or on one's roof, or on a tall pole in one's yard.)

So, I'm sure I'm jumping right over some difficult challenges, but the main point being suggested here is that maybe we should use radio wave frequencies with open-source-encryption - which brings up the vital question of can we really create encryption that can't be covertly broken and listened in on?

Does unbreakable encryption require passing a password to our intended connection first, so that that human knows the "password" to breaking your (hopefully otherwise un-breakable) encryption of your particular frequency? Yeah, a password means a key, but how do we safely pass our friend that key/password in the first place?

Hmm, I can't seem to figure out the last part. Which is chronologically the first part: passing to a friend the key to decipher your radio broadcast. Friends we meet physically, this problem becomes instantly solved with a cafe conversation/note-pass. Easy. I just can't figure out how to securely send by radio a password to folks who one has not met but somehow trust, so that those specific folks may from that point on always be able to decipher your transmission.

So, I noticed last night, while researching my wife's favorite RadioHead album (which was a choose-your-own-price, donate-directly-to-the-band, while-downloading-directly-from-the-band, no-more-distribution-middle-man-parasites-will-be-supported-anymore, individual-human-self-sufficiency-inspiring album entitled inRainbows) I found some links which might be related to this challenge of how to create private internet:

Is this mystery technology seemingly already existing for the wealthy, of "Private Internet" through "Pseudo-Wires", simply A) fraudulently PRETENDING to not use the-old-and-lines but still really using them anyway, or are these guys implementing the "let's use radio frequencies to create a broadcast system of private internet without touching the old-land-lines anymore, and without using any lines at all anymore, the only line needed would be from one's antennae to one's computer" idea outlined above?

I'm definitely NOT saying, "Hey let's use this company over here, they'll keep us safe, they are the solution!" Not at all, the total opposite. I'm saying let's brainstorm an actual peer-to-peer connection system. Perhaps like what I outlined above, or perhaps what is being discussed in the confusing sentences in those papers on the Pseudo-Wire page link above, or perhaps some totally different fresh idea is needed.

What we need is: each peer actually connecting to a chosen peer WITHOUT ANY COMPANIES "helping" this exchange between the two peers. No company, or any group of individuals we don't trust (like the state-wires, cooperative-ISPs, "private nodes", "privacy solution companies" linked above) can ever be trusted with the power of holding the keys to our private information, with their claims of "trust us, trust us, we'll do the encryption and sending for you, and we'll never sell copies of your info, why would we do that" - since that old style of power being held by any individual/group is bound to cause bribe/threat corruption.

Really, the bottom line is that no body should be reading your mail. Modern society has been fooled into thinking it is OK for the delivery people to open our correspondence, just because instead of using pen and paper we are choosing to use this electronic style.

This NEW form of communication will be TRUE peer-to-peer: for example, simply one person pumping out their radio transmission, and another person who has the password to decipher that transmission...

... as the information gets bounces around the world passed by a bunch of other receivers/transmitters - strangers who don't know what is being said yet cooperatively helping all of these encrypted frequencies bounce around the world...

...helped in part ironically by the glass ionosphere that keeps us trapped here on the surface (whether outer or inner), and even paradoxically boosted by the bad guys who it seems have been spraying metal in the air for decades, to increase this whole radio-vibrations-bouncing-around-the-world system.

So, glass ionosphere and metal particles, thanks for the help escaping those old-state-controlled-land-lines, now we just need to figure out how to encrypt strongly and pass our un-physically-met friends-around-the-world the passwords to our strongly-encrypted blog frequencies! Yay! :-)

Those are good ideas. It reminds me of the ham radio e-mail that coast guards use. I think this might even have come up before in another topic.

I don't see a reason Internet-type information needs to always go across the world (or even bounce off the sky) before it re-reaches our neighbor.

If I just want to send something to my friend a half-mile away, shouldn't I be able to just modify a pair of walkie-talkies to send short data bursts that computers on either end with a personalized key per message interpret into bits - bytes - megabytes?

By the time anyone decrypts such messages, with the complexity of the key, the data would be obsolete.

Or maybe set up a "micronet" with a little pod/antenna and that could serve as a community's Internet hub if they get an App on their little device. I don't use such App or phone devices but just saying.

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Anyway, I don't think we should necessarily speak of giving up. Let's spread the word about the nefariousness of this newest "Free Trade" (a.k.a. rich people hoarding public assets) crap.

hoi.polloi wrote:If I just want to send something to my friend a half-mile away, shouldn't I be able to just modify a pair of walkie-talkies to send short data bursts that computers on either end with a personalized key per message interpret into bits - bytes - megabytes?"

How DO we say "No, you can't open+record+understand our letters anymore. You can't force us to put our name or return address on outgoing letters anymore either. We are returning to the system of private correspondence from a human to a human, without anyone else involved!"

Either technology, using radio or using the current network of physical wires, we definitely do NEED to keep private correspondence between two people private, even when that correspondence is moving through public air or through "public" wires.

I have been busy lately and it's only now that I noticed this thread. Glad you started it Hoi. TTIP is a HUGE deal. They had been keeping it in total secrecy with MSM whores completely silent about it and we began to hear about it just very recently when it's practically done.

Once it's implemented the gates will be open to privatization of health care systems in Europe, American agricultural GMO products will flood our markets but the most important thing ( in regards to economics IMHO ) is that this agreement will enable corporations to sue governments if national legislation hurts, according to their lawyers potential profits. So if for example Italian environmental laws are considered too harsh for eg. coca-cola , the tax payers will compensate the firm. TTIP is of course much, much more touching on and affecting every aspect of our lives from economics to free speech.

I think there may be a consistent agenda to silence people and we are doing an important service here if — by nothing else — openly talking of peace, equality and compassion and how to achieve (or increase) it today.

Openly talking is itself a scary thing for a generation of college age adults now being protected by amazingly childish "safe zones" where they are given calming activities to escape the possibility of conflict.

Maybe there is something greater (and less monstrous than we assume) behind it if it is, in fact, an exercise in forcefully demanding peaceful discussion. After all, we must admit we were all of us born into a very bellicose world run by insane psychopaths.

However, I have concerns that The Maniacal Powers That Be would love to establish something like "safe zones" in order to eventually twist it around to censorship, self-censorship, open State secrets and the end of legal free speech rights. Just as they have already done with "free speech zones" at protest gatherings, where protestors are literally herded into cages and told they are allowed to express their opinion safely from within an open air prison. (I have seen this and narrowly averted this on more than one occasion in the United States.)

As we have seen in Europe with the laws that protect an already protected class of insane Zionist zealots who even criticize their own kind for not being zealous and extreme enough (in cases where Jews speak out against Israel's violence, for example) we face the risk in the "Free World" of being censored.

In this case, and with the phenomenon of Trump, we might be seeing a rising challenge to our social freedoms and cohesion as a culture that creates culture collectively.

My concerns about how free speech will be attacked include:

1. New iterations of TTIP and TPP to force countries to conform to the demands of NGOs and corporations, giving legal and financial leverage to squash critiques of any Public Relations campaigns. This would be a very large threat — no matter how impotent — because Public Relations and propaganda have (as we've proven over and over) infiltrated the philosophy and systems of the State

2. Racist incidents both real and hoaxed blamed on Trump, derailed and steered into whiny Democrat Statism, to inflate the power of TTIP and TPP type moves

3. Anti-Defamation League, Jewish groups and other race-based groups mishandling their power, in order to make new demands rather than merely maintaining calls for respect

4. Cultural creations of such groups, like "safe zones" where young adults are asked to shelter their minds from the responsibility of civil discourse and non-violent non-passive aggressive communication with their fellows

The hoaxers may be quiet right now because they are basically lining up their strategies to set up a chain of events to establish a more dangerous form of Total Twits In Power and/or Tyranny Plucking Posies. We must be vigilant on this matter, as the very notion of civil discussion can clearly be disrupted by lobby groups with enough influence.

(Please note I think things would be just the same under Hillary and the change of mascot character does not change their goals — probably only which strategy they have already written up.)

I am not defending the rights of Public Relations campaigns, by the way, though I also understand there could be the threat that people will say the solution to the hoaxes is to squash free speech.

I heard recently that we could put in place reasonable legislation that makes the news add disclaimers like, "This program is for entertainment purposes only". And what would be wrong about that since it's the truth? This would not be an attack on free speech. Indeed, it would open up cultural discussions and prevent more people from browbeating each other with "It was on the news!" claims of legitimacy.

United States is an only major state with absolute freedom of speech. Do they really want to do away with it?

btw

"Pizzagate" shitshow might really be about freedom of speech too . Alleged or real pizza joint's owner Alefantis was complaing a lot about "hidden" and "impossible to prosecute" defamers in one of his interviews . I will post a link once I find it.

Prosecuting and harassing people for alleged "hate" ( this English word even found its way to common Polish replacing our old, good "mowa nienawiści") is more and more common in Poland.

The powers that be also know that liberty & private property rights are the source of Anglo-American power. There is a reason that Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Microsoft, Tesla, Google, Apple & friends are all American corporations.

Like bostonterrierowner said, outside of America & to a lesser extent the other Anglo-Saxon countries, liberty is a foreign concept that few people agree with. They sort of like the sound of the idea, until anyone disagrees with them on any subject, or until a new innovation threatens their job, then they don't want it anymore.

I would say that in America there is also anti-defamation laws. So a person cannot publicly disseminate lies to defame another person. If you watch the sophisticated spokespeople, they never say something like, 'this person ripped off other people'. They say it like, 'there are accusations from people who lost money with that person, that they were ripped off'.

With freedom of association, corporations like Google, Facebook & Twitter could also choose to not associate with certain websites they felt were 'fake news'. Actually exercising their own liberties, they could simply not list in their searches anything they didn't want to list. Of course free people could then choose if they wanted to use different websites for their searches and communications.

outside of America & to a lesser extent the other Anglo-Saxon countries, liberty is a foreign concept that few people agree with. They sort of like the sound of the idea, until anyone disagrees with them on any subject, or until a new innovation threatens their job, then they don't want it anymore.

Sense of "being free" ( meaning of which is a vast topic ) is deeply rooted in Polish tradition. People very often answer "musi to na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce" when somebody is told that he/she must/has to do something. It's a centuries old proverb basically saying that in Poland people (applying only to nobles in the past of course ) cannot be forced to anything unlike in Russia.

bostonterrierowner » December 12th, 2016, 2:46 pm wrote:Sense of "being free" ( meaning of which is a vast topic ) is deeply rooted in Polish tradition. People very often answer "musi to na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce" when somebody is told that he/she must/has to do something. It's a centuries old proverb basically saying that in Poland people (applying only to nobles in the past of course ) cannot be forced to anything unlike in Russia.

Poland does seem to have a long history of liberty. Like I remember a Polish libertarian telling me about these 'corporation cities' in the middle ages, with widespread private property and input from many people and markets where people sold their wares. Which looking back were way ahead of their time.

For fake news, institutions like universities and media corporations should build their reputations. Like when I see one of the big US universities name on a scientific study I believe the study is legitimate. Granted you have to carefully read the study to watch out for subtle ways of getting the results they want, like the exclusion criteria in medical studies. But the actual data I have found to have integrity.

With these reputations there is monetary value created for these institutions. If you are a big corporation and have something legitimate that you want an institution with integrity to back you up on that to help sales, you go to the Yale or MIT or similar, to confirm your results in their own study. And you can be sure they are going to charge you a great deal to do that confirmation study.

Yeah. Like you always see these deans leave these cherished institutes on their retirement as poor but humble men...much like the presidents/prime ministers who do it all because of their altruistic nature...never the money, girls/boys, power, influence...

aa5 » December 12th, 2016, 10:43 pm wrote:For fake news, institutions like universities and media corporations should build their reputations. Like when I see one of the big US universities name on a scientific study I believe the study is legitimate.

Well that makes one of us.

Granted you have to carefully read the study to watch out for subtle ways of getting the results they want, like the exclusion criteria in medical studies. But the actual data I have found to have integrity.

With these reputations there is monetary value created for these institutions. If you are a big corporation and have something legitimate that you want an institution with integrity to back you up on that to help sales, you go to the Yale or MIT or similar, to confirm your results in their own study. And you can be sure they are going to charge you a great deal to do that confirmation study.

bostonterrierowner » December 12th, 2016, 2:46 pm wrote:Sense of "being free" ( meaning of which is a vast topic ) is deeply rooted in Polish tradition. People very often answer "musi to na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce" when somebody is told that he/she must/has to do something. It's a centuries old proverb basically saying that in Poland people (applying only to nobles in the past of course ) cannot be forced to anything unlike in Russia.

Love the quote, BTO.

Liberty is by no means a concept reserved for Anglo-Saxon countries

Agreed, my good sir, agreed!

Too much of a good thing may hurt you bad IC . Oligarchs became more powerful than the state and pushed their own agenda ( Moscow was conquered by the private forces for example ), corrupt nobles couldn't be prosecuted ( rebelling against the king was perfectly legal - so called "Rokosz" . Libertarian paradise one might say ) and once a vast, sophisticated and very powerful country disappeared from the maps.

Today we are basically a cheap, skilled labor reservoir and most obedient Anglo-American bitches.